Project Function
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Project Censored identifies and researches news stories which it believes have been underreported, mis-reported, or censored in the mainstream media. With this research, the group aims to advocate the protection of the First Amendment rights granted by the United States Constitution and freedom of information within the United States of America. The project is built around the "Sociology 435: Media Censorship" course based at the university. This course requires long hours of researching library databases. Each student is invited to develop skills of finding and researching such news stories and make full use of them for the purpose of conducting coverage reports on more than 200 under-published stories yearly. One of the goals of the project is to encourage the development of a national interconnected community-based media news service that will offer a "diversity" of news and information to local mainstream audiences through various media. Support and encouragement is provided to journalists, faculty, and student investigation of the principle objectives as stated above.
According to the group, a story covered by Project Censored should:
- contain information that the general population has a right and a need to know, but to which it has limited access.
- be timely, ongoing, and have implications for a significant number of residents of the United States of America.
- have clearly defined concepts and be backed with solid verifiable documentation.
- have been published electronically or in print, in a circulated newspaper, journal, magazine, newsletter, or similar publication by a foreign or domestic source.
- have direct connections and implications for people within the United States of America, possibly including activities US citizens are engaged in abroad.
To date, the participants number nearly 200 and include the program staff of the School of Social Sciences at Sonoma State University, its students, its faculty, research interns, community experts, funders, and volunteer judges. Major sources of funding are provided by hundreds of individual donors, Working Assets, Anita Roddick, and The Body Shop International, as well as the Office of the President, the Office of the Provost, and the School of Social Science at Sonoma State University.
Project Censored was founded in 1976 by journalism professor Carl Jensen. He retired in 1996, and from 1996 through summer 2009 the project was directed by sociology professor Peter Phillips. Phillips continues in a supportive role as president of the Media Freedom Foundation.
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